One convicted of manslaughter, one acquitted in 2008 Richmond killing of ...

A Contra Costa jury on Friday acquitted one man, and convicted another in the shooting death of a 20-year-old Vallejo man in Richmond in 2008.

The jury found 23-year-old Richmond resident Deshand Earl Warren guilty of voluntary manslaughter with use of a gun for shooting 20-year-old Davonte Wesley 16 times on May 24, 2008 near 34th Street and Nevin Avenue. The jury found Warren's cousin, 23-year-old Chad Deshawn Walker, not guilty of all charges.

The prosecution, seeking a first-degree murder conviction for both defendants, said the cousins planned to kill Wesley days before Warren gunned him down as Walker waited in a hidden, getaway car.

There had been some kind of confrontation between Walker and Wesley 12 days before Wesley's death, and reports that one or both men had fired a gun during the incident. Afterward, Walker had entered Wesley's number in his cell phone under the name "Dead Man Walking," a prosecutor said.

But defense attorneys argued that the cousins were looking to for marijuana, not Wesley, that day. They said Warren was scared of Wesley and fired when he thought he was reaching for a gun. Wesley was actually reaching for a cell phone.

Warren is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 27. Walker was released from County Jail on Friday night.

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